The Image staff muses on the culture of keeping up appearances

Hurley X Rick Griffin collaboration catches a psychedelic wave

December 6, 2011 | 10:00
am

The surf and psychedelic artwork of the late artist Rick Griffin -- including the mop-headed surfboarding Murphy character -- adorns five new graphic T-shirts and a limited-edition run of Converse Jack Purcell shoes as part of Hurley's ongoing H Space artist collections series.

Three of the shirts offer versions of the Murphy caricature, another depicts a surfing Jesus and the fifth T-shirt boasts a colorful psychedelic design similar in style to his concert poster and record album artwork. (More detailed versions of the T-shirt art are posted at Hurley's website.)

The shoe collaboration (Converse and Hurley are both owned by Nike) features lightweight canvas uppers in aquamarine blue with the Murphy character on the left tongue and Griffin's stylized signature on the right.

Griffin, a psychedelic artist known for record album and concert poster art he created for the likes of Jimi Hendrix and the Grateful Dead, died in a 1991 motorcycle accident, but some of the iconic images he created have resurfaced in wearable form over the years (including on Vans footwear and in previous Hurley collaborations).

Tees in the current collection retail for $35 each, and the Hurley X Converse kicks are priced at $60. They're available online at Mollusk Surf Shop in San Francisco and Venice. We just checked with the Venice store, which reports it's got the full range of the collection in stock. The merchandise should be available at Hurley.com starting in mid-December, Hurley representatives say.